A new Seer, Professor Oakes
by Bulbuh
Summary: Hogwarts has a new Divination Professor, Professor Oakes. Professor Oakes is an American Seer who previously studied at Hogwarts. Before coming to Hogwarts, he worked in America as teaching combat magic, and divination. This story tells what happened during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts. In this telling Professor Trelawney never returns to Hogwarts and someone must take ov
1. Chapter 1

The Gryffindor's applause was cut short by Dumbledore's approach to the lectern. As the final student first year sat at the Gryffindor table, Dumbledore took a final sip of wine and began to speak.

"Hello students!" he boomed, his voice magically amplified. Dumbledore's normal jovial tone of voice was marred by a new steel most students hadn't ever heard, except for the Weasley twins.

"We have come to a new era here at Hogwarts. The darkness we have fought for so long has begun to push more into our beloved castle." At this remark, the four great house tables broke into frantic whispers.

"Silence!" cracked Dumbledore's voice, and he continued.

"I am not here to covet fear and spread the miscommunication, miscommunication that so many people would prefer. I am here to say we, we as Hogwarts, must now of all times pull together. We must not allow Voldemort…"

At the name, many student's squealed and several goblets fell. The great hall was cacophony of fear.

Dumbledore allowed this commotion to ease and then proceeded.

"Voldemort is his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle is his real name. Fear of a name only breeds fear. We must know him, we must address him as so, Voldemort. Voldemort, is alive and he is doing his best to breed fear and hate, but we must not allow him! We must pull together, as the sorting hat just said. We have to come together as we have never done. As a wise hat once said, 'And we must unite inside her or we'll crumble from within...' For our castle and for us to stand, we must know love, and we must show love."

At this Dumbledore allowed several moments to pass and then began once again, this time the kinder better-known Headmaster appeared.

"Time for the normal banal announcements. Mr. Filch has reminded to yet, again, fanged frisbees remain banded, and a full list of banned items are posted on his office door. Once again, I must remind everyone, and tell some of you for the first time the Forbidden Forest is… forbidden to all anyone how doesn't wish to meet a grizzly death please, avoid it. This is especially important as this year the campus wards and charms have been greatly increased. Now a final note, as I can see most of you are ready to get your house common rooms. We have several staffing adjustments, as most of you can see. Professor Slughorn has agreed to take up his old post as Potions Master."

At this Professor Dumbledore waved his arm towards a portly man with a large mustache seated towards the end of the table. A small smattering of applause happened and died away almost as quickly as it has started.

"This apportionment frees up Professor Snape to take on the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts." At this the Slytherin table burst into applause, and several of the Gryffindor's booed.

"Please settle down, we are so close to getting in our lovely warm beds. Finally, this year our dear Professor Trelawney has been called away, her classes with be taken up by a former student, and well know Seer, Clark Oakes."

Several gasps sounded from all over the hall, and several students began clapping.

"Quite please" started Dumbledore "He is delayed in his relocation from the United States as a Professor at Ilvermorny. He will be here by the start of the term, please do your best to show him our warmest of welcomes. And with that, pleasant dreams, and please remember, a building with three walls is nothing. We must all be there for each other."

At this Dumbledore stepped down from his platform and the students began flowing out of the hall.

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. I know I am by no means a writer by profession, but I hope this story will be good enough for everyone to not be bothered by my writing style.


	2. Chapter 2

The class sat in the stuffy Divination tower room talking. The night before the headmaster announced they would have a new Divination professor.

"Did they say where Professor Trelawney went?" murmured several Huffepuff's sitting upon large pouffes.

Several Ravenclaw's were grouped together discussing their upcoming O.W.L. exams. "Why would the Headmaster give us a new Professor now? He knows our O.W.L.s are this year."

"Ramona shut it, we all know Trelawney is and was a duffer! Most of her students flunk their O.W.L. we all know this subject is made up, and I'm sure the new guy is a duffer too" spat a Slytherin girl.

"Duffer!" shot a Ravenclaw boy. "Clarke Oakes is anything but a duffer, my Gran reads his predictions each year, and he's usually never wrong."

The room filled with nervous chatter more. "Why wasn't he at the start of the term feast?" questioned a small Slytherin boy.

This is true the new Professor hadn't appeared at the start of the tem feast, which was uncommon.

"Dumbledore said he is from the United States, and Trelawney never came to the feast" piped up a the small Slytherin boy.

As the chatter continued it morphed into a fluid group discussion about the unknown Professor.

"Anyone has to be better than Professor Trelawney, she was a hack" said a Slytherin boy.

"No, she wasn't she was brilliant" rebutted a girl from Gryffindor.

"He's nearly fifteen minutes late, is he even going to bother to show up!" said a very annoyed Ravenclaw girl. "He is wasting my study time, I knew I should have taken Muggle studies!"

As the chatter grew to a crescendo, the students become more rebellious and began to discuss leaving. As several students began to gather their things to leave the trap door flew open with a loud crash.

" _Locomotor trunk!"_ was heard from below, and was followed by a series of crashes. "Damn trunk!" was yelled from below and a large trunk continued to crash into the floor below.

The class which was in an uproar of chatter only moments prior became silent as a large trunk was levitated through the trap door. The trunk turned in midair and came to rest an old carpet sending up a large plume of dust. Multiple students had fallen off their pouffes now began to gather around the trunk.

A man now began to enter from the trap door. As the man entered the class was at his back and when he turned he yelled "What the hell?!" in the excitement he stumbled back almost falling down the trap door.

"Why are you all here?! I was told my first class wasn't until nine?" The man spoke rapidly in a crisp clear America accent.

As the students looked the man over, he looked out of place from their usual Professors. The man was tall, with a broad chest and shoulder. His face was handsome and younger than any of the students had guessed. He only appeared to be a few years older than the students. His large straight nose supported a pair of thick black horned rimmed glasses and his eyes appeared black behind his spectacles. His hair and auburn beard was cut shorter than the wizard custom.

The same girl who had questioned if the new Professor was a duffer quietly said "Sir, it's nearly 9:30."

"What!" said the man in a startled tone. "But my watch says… well damn my watch isn't working damn technology and Hogwarts" The man was tapping a shiny metal digital watch.

"I guess I messed up my time zones, that would explain why the Great Hall was mostly empty when I passed" said the man. "Well this is quite embarrassing, I don't even look the part."

The man was correct, no student at Hogwarts had ever seen a Professor in muggle clothing. The man's clothing was directly out of a muggle world. The clothes gave the student's the idea the man was muggle born because wizards seemed to lack that je _ne sais que_ when pairing muggle clothing. The man was dress with a dark green t-shirt, jeans, a cobalt athletic jacket, and trainers, very muggle and very American.

The man stood for a few moments staring at the class before pointing his wand at his trunk, which sprang open. The man extracted a black cloak and quickly slid it on. As he slid on his robe he did the most peculiar act of placing his wand between his teeth. He then flicked his wand and the trunk flew to the corner.

"Well I guess I should start by apologizing for my tardiness" he said. As he spoke he walked over to the chalkboard, and pointed his wand at it, and the words "Clark Oakes" appeared in ugly blockish writing.

"I am Clark Oakes, and yes as my accent tells you I am American. As it happens I did attend Hogwarts my 6th and 7th years, and completed my final year of education in the United States. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but in America we have 8 years of primary magical education."

As he spoke he paced around the stuffy room and wiped his finger across a dusty cupboard. He muttered "… hasn't changed at all, I bet the elves still doesn't come up here."

As he spoke everyone sat silently. Very few of the students had ever meet someone not fully educated at Hogwarts. He paced around the room in a slow spiral looking with an appraising eye.

Professor Oakes pointed his wand at the closed windows and they opened spewing clouds of dust and flooding the dark room with light. Then he turned his wand on the roaring fire which spewed the heavily perfumed scent, and the fire died. As a light breeze blew through the room and overly perfumed air became easier to breath.

The wizard then focused his wand on the red scarves set of the lamps and they began to disappear, with each disappearance a new cloud of dust was born. After all the scarves were gone another wave of the wand made the light of the lamps magically intensified. The room was now flooded with copious amounts of light, and breeze made room feel airy. Then with a final jerky motion of his wand the dark velvet curtain that decorated the room began to disappear leaving large motes of dust.

"Sorry, for the dust. Please if you don't mind draw your wands and help remove it. This will go a lot quicker with some help, the incantation is _Tergeo_. I was planning to get here a day early to clean out his tower, but… I was delayed. I will have to meet with the head house elf and ask for some help here."

As he spoke some of the student's shot looks at each other not sure what to do.

"I asked for some help guys, please and thank you" said Professor Oakes in a strict tone.

After a few moments, the room stood in stark contrast from the previous dark heavy room, it was only moments ago. It was now open and airy and somehow a whole lot less mystic. Professor Oakes paced the room picking up various dusty and cobweb laden objects off the shelf, with a look a full distain on his face.

"Okay guys, since I was late I guess we won't have time for a full lesson" said Professor Oakes. "We can make this a short class today, and a bit informal. Does anyone have any questions?"

The class sat silent attempting to not make eye contact with the new Professor. Professor Oakes then spoke again "The subject isn't limited to Divination, any questions at all?"

A Ravenclaw boy raised his hand timidly "Sir" he said.

Professor Oakes turned to the boy and in a kind voice said, "there is no need for hands today, and you question?"

"Well Sir, I don't mean to sound impertinent, but have you taught before?" the boy stuttered "I just mean… this is our O.W.L. year and we have exams this year." As the boy finished his question he blushed and averted his eyes from the Professor.

Professor Oakes smiled "Yes, I have taught before. I have taught at both Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the States, and at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic in France. I first taught Divination at Beauxbatons but my French is _très mauvais_ and then in America at Ilvermorny I taught combat magic. I was working at Ilvermorny until the Headmaster asked me here as a special favor."

At the words "combat magic" the students begin to mutter and shoot glances at each other. A girl sitting with the group of Gryffindors said "combat magic" slightly too loud and Professor Oakes smiled and begin to speak again.

"I am sorry you Brits call it Defense Against the Dark Arts. But in America we don't use such a lofty name."

The same Gryffindors girl spoke again "But the Dark Arts are evil, how can you say it isn't! How could…"

But the girl didn't get a chance to complete her exclamation because Professor Oakes voice cut over hers. "You need to understand that just because something can be used for evil doesn't mean the thing it's self evil. Muggles and Wizards use plant derived compounds to treat illnesses all the time. Those same compounds can be used a poison if not properly given. Just because something can be used for evil doesn't fundamental make it evil."

Professor Oakes cleared his throat and continued "In America we call, what you Brits call Dark Arts for the most part, Combat Magic, because that is what it is. I've heard people say a stunning spell is part of the dark arts, and I've heard the opposite. If we go around calling everything that can hurt someone a Dark Art, then I can't really thing of a spell that isn't a _Dark Art_ ".

The girl exclaimed "What about the unforgiveable curses? Are you telling me those aren't evil?"

Professor Oakes looked at the student clearly in the face and a sense of power could be seen in his eyes "Your name?"

"Alice Gray" she said meeting the Professors powerful stare full on.

"10 points to Gryffindor" Professor Oakes said looking at the student's house robes. Then he continued.

"First of all, the 10 points if for making a well-argued argument, and questioning logic.

Now then, are three spells Miss Gray spoke of… As I may be mistaken at Hogwarts you won't learn about these three spells till sixth year, so let me explain a bit more."

"The first and most easily explained the Imperius curse. This spell allows someone to take over someone else's body, and use it for their own devices. It allows for training for risky and dangerous tasks. I know must of you know the more sinister reasons it is used, but this is not why it was originally created. It was invented to allow witches and wizards to learn complex motor skills in dangerous situations. I believe to this day new dragon handlers and healers at St. Mungo's still use it for this purpose."

"Second the pain curse, the cruciatus curse. This curse has very little that can be said that is beneficial. It was originally invented to torture highly accomplished Occlumens, and people who can easily defend their mind again magical attacks. This maybe the most evil of all the curses, that is if _evil_ is a thing."

As the new Professor spoke a since of energy and excitement filled his voice.

"The cruciatus curse can have therapeutic effects if delivered properly for muggles or wizards with nerve damage. The curse is usually delivered by a very trained wizard and sometimes it is performed under the imperius curse to guide them. This can allow for the regrowth of nerves, which even for magic isn't an easy task. This curse may have started bad but it is not bad itself".

"Finally, the killing curse which in my mind is a bit hard to justify. This spell kills, and there is only one known survivor, and he currently attends Hogwarts. I'm sure most of you know to whom I'm speaking. The only reason that I can think that makes it less _evil,_ is in cases of capital punishment. In America, we don't use dementors to do away with our worse. We use the killing curse, we find this more humane, as opposed to removing someone's soul."

As he finished this statement the class fell silent, all eyes were on the new Professor. The Professor walked towards the window of the tower and looked out. As he turned to face the class he spoke calmly.

"We call the Dark Arts "combat magic", not because they are evil but because that is what they are. It is magic that is used for combat and since people always try to hurt others, we educate our youth to properly defend their selves. In some cases, we teach spells that at Hogwarts are forbidden. We don't teach every curse or hex at Ilvermorny, but we do teach more than here. Some matters we do deem more sinister and we don't teach those, but we usually will discuss them which during our student's final year. We thought it better to be aware of all possibilities than to be caught off guard."

Professor Oakes then asked again "Any other less intense questions? If you have any other questions about this subject either ask me after class or your current Professor for the subject, Professor Snape."

A small silence fell over the class; the tenseness of the class was evident in how the students sat on their small spongy seats. All eyes were on Professor Oakes and he felt them digging into him.

"Sir, you said you went to Hogwarts, what house where you sorted into" said a large shouldered Hufflepuff boy.

"Ravenclaw" replies the Professor.

"Ravenclaw?" questioned the Ravenclaw students.

"Yes, Ravenclaw. Wit beyond measure…" said the Professor trailing off, and then he continued.

"I pride myself on my knowledge… and I'm sure some of you have been told this class is a soft subject, and I am aware Divination is probably the furthers a Ravenclaw can stray in the magic arts. I do disagree with this statement, but you will soon learn what Divination is when I teach it. A cakewalk will not be instore, I can assure you that."

Just then a small squeak of excitement came from a Ravenclaw boy who half yelled "How, but, but why are you? How are you here, here at Hogwarts? You're famous! I always though you would be older". The last part of the comment fell off, almost as a whisper.

"Well, I am here as a favor to the Head Master, and while I'm here I will do my best to teach all that I can. I know without a true inner eye, true prophesies maybe a bit far off, but any Wizard worth their salt should be able to predict the weather, and know how to read the signs."

The class began to murmur in whispered questions.

Professor Oakes then said "I think that is enough for today, the bell should be sounding soon. As for homework, I would like each of you to review our previous notes from Sybil... I mean Professor Trelawney, we will have a short test next class to judge where everyone is."

As the last word was said the bell sounded. The class sat there looking at their new Professor.

"Guys you don't want to be late, and I need to do some cleaning so, hurry on".


End file.
